Here’s a thought-provoking story about a man who was raising four sons. He wanted them to learn how to make wise decisions without judging things too quickly, so he sent each of them individually on a quest to look at a pear tree that was located a long distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. After returning from their quests, the father asked each of them to describe what they saw.

The first son said the tree was ugly, twisted and harsh, and recommended it be cut down. The second son said it was sad-looking but was starting to get green buds and seemed full of promise. The third son said it was stunningly beautiful, covered in blossoms and smelling sweet. And the fourth son said it was drooping with fruit and full of life.

The man explained they were all right, but they should not judge the tree’s value because they had only seen one season in the tree’s life.

Here’s the way I see it: Just as you should never judge a tree by one season, you should never judge a person by one difficult season in life. After all, no matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.

You've just created the most ingenious product that the world has ever seen. It simultaneously makes you lose weight, look younger, have the energy of a two-year-old, all while converting your trash into $100 bills. You've created a sales page for your product, with a picture of the product and the words, "A great tool for everyone." But, the response...well, the silence is deafening. You scratch your head in wonder.

What's missing on your sales page is, well, a lot actually. Writing sales copy is both an art and a science. Before you put your pen to paper or start tapping on the keyboard, you need to have a solid understanding regarding these three things:

What your product or service does, especially the benefits to the customer.

What sets your product or service apart from the competition?

Who your customer is, particularly what they want in life and how they spend their time.

Truly understanding these three things will make the rest of your job much simpler and help you as you navigate your way through the sales progression.

The Sales Progression

Every piece of sales copy worth its salt, regardless of the medium, has three phases:

Grabbers: get the undivided attention of your audience.

Description & Benefits: make them physically crave what your product or service can do.

Clinchers: get them falling all over themselves to make a purchase.

Within each of these phases, you want to maximize the impact of your words because people lose interest fast. We've gathered some tried and true formulas for making your words count. Let's take a look.

Grabbers

Because shooting your prospects with a squirt gun isn't always an option for getting their attention, try one of these:

Introducing _________!

Exclusive offer for ___________ members only

Free _____________!

Save up to ___________ %

Descriptions & Benefits

Here is where you make your prospects really fall in love with your product by telling them how amazing their lives will be if they buy it.

Poignant, memorable, your ticket to ___________

Grow your _____________

Boost your ____________

Take control of ___________

Clinchers

This phase is essentially where you want to include a call to action - tell your prospects exactly what you want them to do. More often than not, they'll do it.

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The Takeaway

The key to moving your products off the shelves is using your understanding of your product and your customers to choose impactful words that will grab their interest and make them fall in love with your product.

While there are many online resources where customers can leave reviews, Facebook is one of the most popular. Since the majority of your customers are likely already on Facebook, writing a review and recommending a business takes minimal effort. While you can also ask customers to write Yelp or Google reviews, they may not already have a Yelp account or Gmail account and may be less likely to open new accounts just to review your business.

Another benefit when customers choose to review your business on Facebook is that their review is also visible to their friends, family, and other connections, extending the reach of their review.

When you search for a business on Google, a box on the right side appears showing an overview of the business with photos, hours of operation, Google reviews, AND overall review scores from the web, such as Facebook and other sites. This enables anyone to view your Facebook review score, even if they don’t use Facebook.

One of the easiest ways to get Facebook reviews is to ask your loyal customers directly. Make a habit of asking customers how their experience was, and when they provide a positive response, say, “We’d appreciate it if you would take a moment to share your experience on Facebook!” Or “We’re glad to hear it! Please review us on Facebook!”

You can also include review requests as a note enclosed with a package, as a tagline on your email signature, in a handwritten thank you note, or even post a public request on your Facebook page, such as “We hope you enjoyed our latest promotion! Leave us a review to let us know what you think.”

Before requesting a review, ensure that your Facebook page has reviews enabled. Go to Settings > Edit Page > scroll to the bottom and select Add a Tab. From there, select Reviews. Then, drag and drop the order of your tabs to position them the way you want on your Facebook Page.

If you’re looking for great way to organize a variety of information in a sleek, bound booklet, a custom-tabbed resource booklet may be just what the doctor ordered.

Custom-tabbed resource booklets are an ideal tool for emergency guidebooks and can include site-specific procedures, policies, contacts, maps, and more. Colored subject tabs enable readers to quickly find the topics they need without having to open the book.

While you may have an official ERP (Emergency Response Plan) that is 100+ pages long, a custom tabbed resource is a great way to ensure critical information can be easily found and used in a real-life emergency. While many organizations publish emergency information on the internet, remember print is the best policy in the event of an emergency. Even if your internet goes down, your emergency response plan will still be available.

They can be spiral bound and available in any size you need, varying from small pocket guides to oversized displays that can be hung on cubicles or breakroom walls. They can feature layered tabs that are color coordinated and organized based on your specific categories. We can also laminate or coat your booklet pages for extra durability.

If you’d like help creating the perfect tabbed resource booklet for your organization, give us a call today. And remember, other printers may be nearby, but nobody comes close!

Animated GIFs have become a popular way to communicate on social media, blogs, and even texting. While many people download pre-made GIFs, you can also easily create your own custom GIFs. Here are a few examples of popular iOS and Android apps that allow you to turn almost any video clip into a GIF:

Giphy is not only the internet's largest GIF search engine, but the Giphy Cam app enables you to film videos directly through the app, create animated stickers, and more.

Gifx is a creative and customizable app that allows users to apply more than 200 GIF effects to photos and videos, as well as add music, adjust opacity, size, etc., and add creative masks.

GifLab (iOS only) offers one of the easiest ways to create GIFs from your own videos. It has minimal effects yet the essential features for beginners.

Gifs Art (iOS only) enables users to create and customize GIFs from almost any type of media (photos, videos, existing GIFs). It also features a built-in library of masks, stickers, and creative effects.

Tumblr features a GIF tool directly in its mobile app so users can easily create GIFs from videos or photo bursts from their camera rolls.

If you’d like other tips to stay ahead of the creative curve for work or fun, check out the tips on our website or give us a call today!